This was an epic journey indeed! The Daredevil’s Club Explorers did their best to stretch their edges of exploration, service, and connection with five days of very different, fun, challenging, and curious adventures. It is hard enough to encapsulate a single day into the space of an outing report, but an entire week of summer camp is too large to even attempt. It becomes necessary to provide impressions, highlights, and overviews of this full life experience.
The adventure began with our farthest journey. Right off the bat, the Daredevil’s Club piled into Stubbs and made their way to the North Lake Whatcom trailhead. This was a new destination for Explorers’ Club, and they were the first to experience it. Despite the grey skies and cool temperatures, we found our way to the water and managed to almost instantly slip into a state of timelessness. After long bouts of balancing, levering, problem-solving, and
just plain playing with logs, we found the day half gone. This was a typical experience for this summer camp, as we tended to get so if entranced with what we were doing that we often forgot about clocks and schedules.
just plain playing with logs, we found the day half gone. This was a typical experience for this summer camp, as we tended to get so if entranced with what we were doing that we often forgot about clocks and schedules.
That being the case, we still manage to fit some interesting curriculum, investigations into new plants, the building of skills, the invention of new games, authentic exploration of never before trodden trails, a study of hazards, and the art of camping outside.
As this Explorer sits back and tries to recall the whole of this experience, a few pinpoint memories, like stars in a constellation, glimmer in the dark expanse of his consciousness: the introduction of Ripple through the Forest, learning how to negotiate the wet and 
cold, the joy of finding new places, epic games of Spider's Web, learning how to identify the plants we can eat, learning how to identify what may be dangerous, discovering Hoag’s Pond, the introduction of the bandanna challenge, more of the art of carving, giant cedars, bursting bushes of huckleberries, the great teachings of the winter wren, learning how to respond when you're lost, the obstacle course challenge, the great process of learning how to work together and be in good community, mud, hiding, sneaking, playing Life and Death in the Forest, learning how to harvest downed wood, the endurance of a long hike, splinting a “broken leg”, puffballs, Ironwood, swimming at Fragrance Lake amongst the brilliant blue dragonflies, setting up tarps, cooking, fire by friction, coal-blowing, s’mores, a game of Firestalk, raccoons!, sleeping under the stars, a massive service project of ivy pulling, and saying our thanks.
cold, the joy of finding new places, epic games of Spider's Web, learning how to identify the plants we can eat, learning how to identify what may be dangerous, discovering Hoag’s Pond, the introduction of the bandanna challenge, more of the art of carving, giant cedars, bursting bushes of huckleberries, the great teachings of the winter wren, learning how to respond when you're lost, the obstacle course challenge, the great process of learning how to work together and be in good community, mud, hiding, sneaking, playing Life and Death in the Forest, learning how to harvest downed wood, the endurance of a long hike, splinting a “broken leg”, puffballs, Ironwood, swimming at Fragrance Lake amongst the brilliant blue dragonflies, setting up tarps, cooking, fire by friction, coal-blowing, s’mores, a game of Firestalk, raccoons!, sleeping under the stars, a massive service project of ivy pulling, and saying our thanks.
This was truly a wonderful camp, and all Explorers should be proud of their accomplishments. Thanks so much to all for your great and wonderful work! We're looking forward to exploring with you in the fall. Thanks so much to all the parents for your enduring support and your own spirit of exploration! You all create Explorers’ Club.
Be sure to check out our photos in the summer photo gallery.
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